Some ideas for the "One big expansion pack"

[hornetDC]

Tbh I don't know why people are so hyped about space. Wow, I can now build another base on the moon, or space platform, yay.
I hope to see more design possibilities. Think about nuclear power, it's like a big optional quest - set up sulfuric acid, bring it to miners, invest many resources in expensive reactors, Kovarex etc.
Setting up trains, oil for blue science and nuclear are high points of factorio's progression, other tasks are more or less "make this and this".

[steinio]

Tbh I don't know why people are so hyped about space. Wow, I can now build another base on the moon, or space platform, yay.
I hope to see more design possibilities. Think about nuclear power, it's like a big optional quest - set up sulfuric acid, bring it to miners, invest many resources in expensive reactors, Kovarex etc.
Setting up trains, oil for blue science and nuclear are high points of factorio's progression, other tasks are more or less "make this and this".

Yeah i wonder too.

I need only one extra thing for this game and that's automated mining expansion.
Artillery keeps the biters away but only as long as resources are plently.

[eradicator]

Tbh I don't know why people are so hyped about space.

Personal: Other people like medieval/modern/whatever. I like space.

Logical: It's a natural extension of "launching rockets" and was part of the original development roadmap. And it has good potential for actually new mechanis.

I hope to see more design possibilities. Think about nuclear power, it's like a big optional quest

A less linear tech tree would be awesome. Actually getting a choice what to build next, imagine that. I hate how almost all mods and mod-combinations enforce a mostly linear path through the tech "tree". I much prefer minecraft modpack style where each "mod" (section of the tree) has it's own goals, rewards, etc.

[SKKiro]

Personally I will wait on what they decide the focus of said big expansion pack will be before having any suggestions. I just don't know what to suggest when the focus could be on something completely different than what I suggest.

For example I would love it if the player build aesthetic aspect of the game would end up greatly expended but suggesting that while the devs have in mind something like post rocket progression (beside infinite science) would make said suggestion not fit.

[hornetDC]

Personal: Other people like medieval/modern/whatever. I like space.

Logical: It's a natural extension of "launching rockets" and was part of the original development roadmap. And it has good potential for actually new mechanis.

That's not the point, space is cool (literally ) but there should be more to it than just some new more complex items to produce.

[eradicator]

Personal: Other people like medieval/modern/whatever. I like space.

Logical: It's a natural extension of "launching rockets" and was part of the original development roadmap. And it has good potential for actually new mechanis.

That's not the point, space is cool (literally :lol:) but there should be more to it than just some new more complex items to produce.

I fully agreed to that before you even said it :P.

[Mskvaer]

Factorio is about building factories. More items and complexity is one way for the expansion to go, although not very inventive. The choice of maps, costs and enemies give enough difficulty levels as it is now. Achievments (layzy dog, speedrun) are challenges, but all still "end" with same rocket launch.

Thus, I would like to see different endings. This could be scenarios (single goal) but it is more fun if all endings are possible in the same game. The devs mention that Civ-1 was one inspiration source, and it has about 5 ways to win, where you can decide halfway which goal is easiest this time.

• Kill or capture the Queen of biters (some far distance away).

• (The opposite) Make friends with the natives, like re-forest the desert, or become pollution free. (some forgivnes for early kills needed).

• Pollution free energy (and factory) involves clean fusion science.

• Exploring te whole planet (on a limited 2D map, that maps chunks to a sphere, not torroidal like other games.) That implies resource are not infinite at all; this means a deep core miner construction could be (partial)goal too.

Some "minor" stuff that I miss:

• Shipping, like trains, across water

• Simple flight for the engineer (limited range per fueling)

• Satellites can discover/map ore, and only ore, in undiscovered area (n chunks in a direction) instead of producing science bottles.

• Customization of GUI windows, like you can customize keys for commands

Also minor irritations: Rails can run diagonally, but not belts? Why is the radar coverage square when other stuff has "round" reach? Why does even a tiny puddle have infinite water? Vehicles (and rocket bases) are not pocket items - they should pop up next to the assembler.

Another variation (expansion or -2?): The spaceship could be a needed homebase with a limited starting electricity supply, and nothing, especially belts, runs for free. Drop Labs and let the shipcomputer do that, but now requiring electricty input. Lots of circuits upgrades it.

Lastly - I have only played 100% pure vanilla since 1.0, 800+ hours, so some thoughts have already been done as a mod, I am sure. Nor have I played multiplayer. I've followed all the other suggestions in several threads, and 3D or space building is not an expansion pack, that is Factorio-2. I like the farming idea.

[ptx0]

>Yes, if I was game designer

oh, i thought you were, considering your opinionated posts

[ptx0]

From what I understand, most of these exist as mods. Only bridges and tunnels (for trains?) are not possible with the game engine right now.

thats just cuz you're bad at searching the mod portal fam

that mod isn't actually teleporting trains. it's a kludgy hack. it breaks easily.

[jamiechi1]

I don't see the need for expansion packs. This game is designed to be modded. Mods for the most part eliminate the need for expansion packs. The developers are continuing to improve the game and adding new features. So I expect this will continue for awhile. I'm good with that.

As mentioned above, Tunnels don't work well yet, and there is room for improvement.
Without turning the game into a real 3d game, it would be nice if they fixed it so you could create bridges which would allow the player to travel over or under them. Like in the old C&C games. It would be nice to be able to run a belt above other stuff (belt overpass?) instead of only underneath (underneathies) using the underground belts.

[NotRexButCaesar]

It would be nice to be able to run a belt above other stuff (belt overpass?) instead of only underneath (underneathies) using the underground belts.

This would

1. allow for what might be considered overpowered belt weaving.
2. make the transport madness scenario very easy.
3. make situations similar to transport belt madness much easier, arguably making the game too easy.
4. overall make the game easier, but more complicated than it already is; this would make both the “don’t make the learning curve impossible” and the “don’t make the game easy for the sake of new payers” factions unhappy.

[jamiechi1]

It would be nice to be able to run a belt above other stuff (belt overpass?) instead of only underneath (underneathies) using the underground belts.

This would

1. allow for what might be considered overpowered belt weaving.
2. make the transport madness scenario very easy.
3. make situations similar to transport belt madness much easier, arguably making the game too easy.
4. overall make the game easier, but more complicated than it already is; this would make both the “don’t make the learning curve impossible” and the “don’t make the game easy for the sake of new payers” factions unhappy.

For vanilla games I suppose your right. But for heavily modded games that make things much more difficult, it would be nice to counterbalance that a bit. Bob's with Angel's mods and some others it would be very helpful. And it could make it more fun to make spaghetti factories.

[RMJ]

I would love to see the developers somehow bring climate change into the game. So that your actions have consequences, you start by ruining the world, then eventually has everything has become desolate and toxic, you will try and involve your tech and fix up the planet, clean technology, maybe bring back animal life etc

Or it could simply be a new game try where you instead start on a toxic ruined desolate world, you harvest resources from the ruins of the old worlds.

It would also really like more story / discovery, there should be things out there worth exploring for, it could be technology, but it could also be story / lore. finding ruins of old civilizations etc. It could be rare ore like in Dyson Sphere Program.

[TreefrogGreaken]

Throw my 2 pennies in on this one.

So Factorio is "perfect", and by that, I mean that for all the machines and entities appearances they all don’t wear down, break down, cough black smoke, catch on fire, explode. Now I know there is a MOD that does some of this, I think for the base game, some machine item maintenance would provide another dish to keep spinning as they say, for example.

Machines would have +/- 25% (reducing on version(Mk1,2,3)) variability in speed/elec use/output and would have 3 additional bars. Internal Charge, Internal Oil Pressure, Internal Spare Parts. Machines would require step up/down transformers from the elec network, these transformers could be built and wired to in parallel to keep it simple. Internal Oil Pressure and Internal Spare Parts would require a liquid for some form of lubrication and a spare part.

A reduction in internal charge would simply turn the machine on/off, a reduction in oil pressure would slow the machine down, a reduction in spare parts would reduce the output. No charge and the machine is off, no oil pressure lead to smoke/fire/explode, no internal parts would be no output from machine.

Doing this for all the machines/parts would mean that they are no longer perfect and provide some more uses to items that don’t get a huge amount of use outside some recipes (lube/spare parts!). Rudimentary parts and lube could be made early game.

Another facet to "perfect" is Nauvis its self, it doesn’t really do much as a planet, and is just a blank canvass. Adding Weather and Disasters would liven this up.

Weather effects such as Wind/Rain/Snow/Lightning, would add a bit of life to the planet, and provide some difficulties for the player. Wind could blow you in one direction speeding you up but resisting you in another direction. Lightning could knock out part of the elec network for a time if you don’t have excess capacity.

Disasters such as nauvisquakes/volcano eruptions/tornados/comet or asteroid strikes/forest fires would add in some level of panic mode for a bit like biter attacks and modify the base terrain. Quakes could tear up the ground, bubbling up new sources of water or other fluids(?), eruptions could add ash into the air and on the ground as a new temporary resource, tornados and comet strikes would leave damage and destruction on the map.

Adding these 3 things would make it a worthwhile expansion pack in my mind, expand the base game and make the planet seem more alive.

[Hannu]

I would like to see variations of conditions. There could be seasonal and weather effects which would effect to all things. Assemblers would slow down at very high or very low temperatures. Belts would slow down at very low temperatures or winter could stop them completely. Drones would work at winter but stop during storm. Player should decide on what biomes to build and manage risks. You could build cheap and take risks or build good quality at higher expenses. That would make a new layer of complexity at different way. And it is a thing which can not be done with a mod with reasonable computational cost.

Mods can practically just adjust production chains and names. But basic game stays untouched. There are things which moves things, things which change things, enemies, resources and all are completely predictable. Player or automation controls do not have to react to changing conditions (biters are not really unpredictable). Such things are futile to add in DLC in my opinion.

There could be mechanisms like heavy polluting would change conditions locally and at late game globally, like climate warming. It would force player to make more compromises and decisions and thinking what is advantageous during longer period.

[meems]

Tbh I don't know why people are so hyped about space.

i've already said

1. play area restriction : limited area of an asteroid is an easy way to bring focus on the core fun logistics gameplay of factorio so would greatly improve the game. A good game designer can spot this in a split second, for others including the devs, even in a lifetime they will not see it. The boundless 2D freedom in vanilla trivializes every logistics problem in the game.

2. land becomes a valuable commodity to compete over.

3. Space fleets. Industrialized Asteroids are used to build space fleets which are used to control asteroids. A core strategic element which the current game lacks.

[NotRexButCaesar]

The boundless 2D freedom in vanilla trivializes every logistics problem in the game.

You mean the game is trivial. It is a “logistics game”.

I disagree; if it were trivial there would be a “1 best solution”, which does not currently exist.
Many of the people here have multiple thousands of hours in the game: that doesn’t sound very trivial to me.
There are plenty of things to optimize and ways to do so.

play area restriction : limited area of an asteroid is an easy way to bring focus on the core fun logistics gameplay of factorio so would greatly improve the game. A good game designer can spot this in a split second, for others including the devs, even in a lifetime they will not see it.

It is called a “beacon”.

Don’t insult my devs!

[ptx0]

It would be nice to be able to run a belt above other stuff (belt overpass?) instead of only underneath (underneathies) using the underground belts.

This would

1. allow for what might be considered overpowered belt weaving.
2. make the transport madness scenario very easy.
3. make situations similar to transport belt madness much easier, arguably making the game too easy.
4. overall make the game easier, but more complicated than it already is; this would make both the “don’t make the learning curve impossible” and the “don’t make the game easy for the sake of new payers” factions unhappy.

"overpowered" is in the eye of the beholder. belt weaving is annoying - people don't do it now even if some consider it "overpowered".

if a scenario is made too easy, update it. it should be more fun to play with another level of challenge.

[NotRexButCaesar]

"overpowered" is in the eye of the beholder. belt weaving is annoying - people don't do it now even if some consider it "overpowered".

if a scenario is made too easy, update it. it should be more fun to play with another level of challenge.

That is why I specified “might be considered”.

[ptx0]

there would be a “1 best solution”, which does not currently exist.

robots.

they are unconstrained on throughput potential- unlike belts or trains, which top out at a fixed speed, bots will go faster and faster until they are instant.